Can anyone in France or with insight shed light on the protests? Being reported as in response to "raising taxes" — smells fishy.

— Joe Norman (@normonics) December 3, 2018

Raising taxes is a proximate cause, but that would be sort of like saying that Occupy Wall Street was caused by letting Lehman collapse or bailing out AIG. Technically accurate in a very narrow sense, but ultimately not really correct.

What contributes to the French protests is austerity policies combined with benefits cuts and regressive taxation that make life significantly harder for the working and middle classes while having little effect on the rich. Work protections have been relaxed, pensions cut, taxes greatly increased while the well-off and rich have had to shoulder very little comparatively of this burden. Additionally, worker’s rights have been reduced and dissent has been repressed while any middle-ground parties have essentially been gutted. Meanwhile, immigrants are brought in to replace low-wage labor at even lower wages. In short, life for the middle class is getting worse in France and that trend seems only likely to continue.

What’s seen is a natural response to all of that. Protests are one of the few outlets left as neoliberalism has suppressed all other avenues of dissent while making life roundly worse.

Expect more in the future, and more turning to extreme parties as it gets worse.